My wife and son discovered the Arboretum here in Wilmington this week. So, we spent parts of Saturday & Sunday afternoon there taking pictures and trying to keep the offspring from falling into the water features.

Ah, good times.

The Arboretum is free, open to the public and a beautiful place to relax for a little. We especially like the Japanese Garden area, but we are biased that way.

Link: The Arboretum @ New Hanover County
More Photos: My Puny Flickr Set

I would like to take this last oppourtunity to remind all of you about the fundraiser we’ve been having here at City Buddha.

We’ve joined forces with some of our fellow downtown business’ to help provide a little support to two very important organizations here in the Wilmington area. We’re accepting womens and childrens clothing, as well as personal type items for the Domestic Violence Shelter and Services. In addition to them, we’re also accepting pet items for the Pender County Humane Society(a no-kill shelter), pet food, collars, used blankets(can be used as bedding), as well as monitary donations for either group.

We know it’s tuff times for all of us, but please consider those who are less fortunate then us, and let’s try to pitch in. In return for helping out, we here at City Buddha are willing to give you 5% off your entire purchase for every item you donate, up to 8 items(or 40% off). Also for every purchase you make with donations, we’ll give you an entry for a chance to win a free nite stay at the Wilmingtonian B & B, a gift certificate at Caffe’ Phoenix, and a gift basket fillied with goodies for you to enjoy! Other partcipating business’ include,

Dog Gone Crazy

Edge Of Urge

Finkelsteins

So you can also go into any of these business and take advantage of various discounts with them as well. The drawing for the above mentioned prizes will be held this Sunday, Dec.21st, at 3:00pm at Slice of Life, 122 Market St. and Mayor Bill Saffo will be there to draw the lucky winner!

So again, you have thru this Sunday,to take advantage of this discount reward, and a chance to enter the contest. But more importantly, let’s try to help these people and animals out.

Chris Andrews / City Buddha

I think I might have pulled it off at least half way. I was ok until near the end when someone asked a question about all Flash websites. Suddenly, I became a raving lunatic.

I don’t consider SEO to be my strong area. There are some things I do as a designer to make my sites more search engine friendly like avoiding table based layouts and using the proper tags in the proper places. However, I really consider that as a base for guys like Ty to come in and work their magic.

A big high five to Ty and the other panel members (Jason Conway &  Megan Criss) for organizing this and passing along some very good information to those who attended.

If you’re interested in attending future events, check out the Wilmington Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing Group on meetup.com.

The Grand Poobah of NC social media himself, Wayne Sutton, is promised to make an appearance. If you look up hyperconnected in the dictionary, Wayne’s avatar is probably there along with links to his accounts on Twitter & about 75 other social media sites that you haven’t even heard of.

The man is a beast.

10 AM – Saturday, October 24th @ The Connection

link: PARROT: Sutton to attend Wilmington meetup